Digital Inspiration Technology Bloghttp://www.labnol.org
Digital Inspiration is an award-winning how-to tech blog around all things related to computer software, web applications, mobile and personal productivity.Wed, 16 Nov 2016 10:38:37 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.11111427http://www.labnol.org/http://img.labnol.org/di/logos.pngDigital InspirationSubscribe with My Yahoo!Subscribe with NetvibesSubscribe with GoogleSubscribe with Live.comMake a Bookmark to Quickly Restart Google Chromehttp://www.labnol.org/internet/restart-google-chrome/29198/
Wed, 16 Nov 2016 10:38:37 +0000http://www.labnol.org/?p=29198Google Chrome, most would agree, is a memory hog. Open a few website tabs in Chrome and your system slows down to a crawl. The most recommended solution is that you uninstall the non-essential Chrome add-ons and restart your browser to release some RAM.

How do you restart Chrome? Close the browser and double-click the application icon on the desktop to launch it again. That’s the usual way but Chrome also offers a special URL that makes it easy to restart Chrome from the address bar.

Make a Chrome Restart Bookmark

If you restart Chrome frequently, it may be a good idea to create a bookmark that will help you restart with a click. Here’s how.

Press Ctrl+D (Windows) or Cmd+D (Mac) to bookmark this page in your browser. Now click the Edit button on the bookmark screen, put chrome://restart in the URL input field and click save to create the restart bookmark.

That’s it. Type chrome://chrome-urls in your browser address bar to see other internal pages of Chrome that can be accessed via special URLs.

The story, Make a Bookmark to Quickly Restart Google Chrome, was originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal on 16/11/2016 under Google Chrome, Internet.]]>29198How to Make Someone Else’s YouTube Playlist Your Ownhttp://www.labnol.org/internet/copy-youtube-playlists/18483/
http://www.labnol.org/internet/copy-youtube-playlists/18483/#commentsTue, 15 Nov 2016 11:00:30 +0000http://www.labnol.org/?p=18483Millions of YouTube users are working diligently to organize this ever-growing database of videos into playlists that make the YouTube experience even more enjoyable.

Looking for inspiring Steve Jobs speeches on YouTube? Classic nursery rhymes for kids? Popular music videos of Adele? Well, chances are that some YouTube user may have already curated the best videos for a topic into playlists that you can watch on any device with a click. You can even download YouTube playlists on your Android or iPhone for offline viewing.

Save Playlists vs Copy Playlists

When you open any video playlist on YouTube, you have the option to save that playlist. This is like creating a bookmark that you can revisit later to watch that playlist again. However, it is a read-only playlist and you have absolutely no control over the content of that playlist.

Also, like everything else on the web, your saved YouTube playlists may disappear without warning. This can happen if the playlist creator deletes the playlist or if their YouTube account is suspended for, say, copyright infringement. When the YouTube account is gone, the user’s playlists are removed too.

The solution is simple. If you would like to save a YouTube playlist permanently, you should clone that playlist into your own YouTube account. You’ll become the owner of the copied playlist and thus, if the original disappears, you aren’t affected.

How to Copy YouTube Playlists of Another User

Introducing YouTube Copier, a web app that lets you easily copy any public video playlist to your own YouTube account.

To get started, sign-in with your YouTube account and allow the app to access your Youtube account. Now enter the YouTube playlist URL (like this one) and choose the privacy of your new playlist – it can be either public (visible to all), private (only visible to you) or unlisted (visible to people who know the link). That’s it.

Click the “Copy Playlist” button and a copy should be ready in your YouTube channel within a minute. Also, you can copy playlists of any size – they can have 20 video or 800 – the tool will copy them all.

How to Merge Multiple YouTube Playlists

The YouTube Copier offers another handy feature – you can input any video playlist (it could be yours or someone else’s) and merge it with an existing playlist in your YouTube account. So if you have discovered 3 different playlists of your favorite music, you can save them all in a single playlist rather than having to create multiple playlists.

The tool uses the official YouTube API and the source code is available on ctrlq.org. Download the YouTubevideo to get started.

The story, How to Make Someone Else’s YouTube Playlist Your Own, was originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal on 15/11/2016 under YouTube, Internet.]]>http://www.labnol.org/internet/copy-youtube-playlists/18483/feed/218483How to Embed Images from Google Photos into your Websitehttp://www.labnol.org/internet/embed-google-photos-in-website/29194/
Tue, 25 Oct 2016 18:41:18 +0000http://www.labnol.org/?p=29194Google Photos is the best service for backing up your digital photos to the cloud. They have no storage restrictions, your can upload images as well as videos, and visual search helps you find photos by people or things in them. There’s one feature though that’s still missing in Google Photos.

You can easily share your photos with anyone using a simple link but Google Photos offers no option for you to embed an existing image into a website. That is, if you have already uploaded an image onto Google Photos, you can’t directly embed it into your website through Google Photos.

Open your website template, paste the generated code and save (see sample). The image will now serve directly from your Google Photos account. This technique can also be used for embedding images in HTML Mail without having to use an external image hosting service.

Embed Google Photos – How it works?

When you share a single photo via a link inside Google Photos, it creates an unlisted link that is accessible to anyone including those who are not logged into their Google Accounts. Internally, the app downloads the page behind this link and extracts the Open Graph tags to determine the direct link of the image and the underlying photo album.

The embed app only works for single images and not albums. One more thing. I am not aware of any bandwidth limitations for images shared via Google Photos. If have a very popular site, this may not be the way to go.

The story, How to Embed Images from Google Photos into your Website, was originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal on 25/10/2016 under Embed, Image, Internet.]]>29194How to Capture Screenshots in Google Chrome without using Extensionshttp://www.labnol.org/internet/web-page-screenshots-in-google-chrome/19851/
http://www.labnol.org/internet/web-page-screenshots-in-google-chrome/19851/#commentsTue, 18 Oct 2016 08:00:37 +0000http://www.labnol.org/?p=19851There are umpteen ways to capture screenshots of web pages in your Google Chrome browser. You can use the good-old Print Screen key (or Cmd+Shift+4 on a Mac), get a snapshot utility like SnagIt or the Windows Snipping Tool, or even better, get a dedicated Google Chrome extension like Smartshot that lets you capture the screen and annotate it.

What some may not know is that the newer versions of Google Chrome have a built-in screenshot capabilities allowing to perform screen captures without install any extensions. The more interesting part is that you can even add device frames to your captured images for more realistic mobile screenshots.

How to Screen Capture in Google Chrome

To get started, open any web page inside Google Chrome and choose Settings -> Tools -> Developer Tools. Alternatively, press F12 on Windows or Cmd+Opt+I on a Mac to directly open the Chrome Dev Tools window.

Next, toggle the Device Toolbar button so that it turns blue. Now select any mobile device from the built-in list of device presets. Set the zoom to 100% and click the Rotate icon to change the orientation (default is portrait mode).

The stage is set. Click the 3-dot menu in the right and enable device frame. Next, choose Capture Screenshot from the same menu to save a device screenshot in PNG format.

Capture Screenshots in Firefox

You can capture screenshots of web pages in Firefox as well without installing any add-ons. Unlike Chrome which can only capture visible region, Firefox developer tools can take a snapshot of the entire web page and automatically saves it in your default downloads folder.

Open Web Developer tools inside Firefox and, under Settings, enable the option – Take a screenshot of the entire page. Firefox will add a camera icon to the developer toolbar letting you capture screenshots with one-click.

The story, How to Capture Screenshots in Google Chrome without using Extensions, was originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal on 18/10/2016 under Google Chrome, Screen Capture, Internet.]]>http://www.labnol.org/internet/web-page-screenshots-in-google-chrome/19851/feed/119851Check iPhone Stock in nearby Apple Stores with a Google Sheethttp://www.labnol.org/internet/monitor-iphone-ipad-stock/28309/
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 07:30:12 +0000http://www.labnol.org/?p=28309You are planning to buy a new iPhone 7 but the model you want to have, the premium jet black finish with 128GB, is neither available at Apple stores in your area nor at any of the online shopping sites. Now the Apple website does have a simple tool to help you check the availability of iPhone, or iPad or any other Apple product, at their retail stores but you still need to perform these inventory checks manually.

Wouldn’t it be easier if these checks could be automated? You specify the iPhone model you wish to own, your preferred color, capacity, your area zip code, your desired carrier and the tool would send you an email alert when iPhone is back in stock at any of the Apple retail stores in your area. It’s like having someone check the Apple website for iPhone availability every few hours.

Check iPhone Availability by Zip Code

What we have here simple Google Spreadsheet, that resides in your Google Drive, and it will monitor the Apple store in the background for iPhone availability. When any of the iPhone models in your watchlist are back in stock at any of the nearby Apple Stores, you’ll get an email alert.

The email alerts (see sample alert) will also include a directly reservation link to help you book the device online for in-store pickup rather than having to drive down to the store.

Monitor iPhone Stock with Google Sheets

Here’s how you can use the Google Script based Apple Tracker tool for automatically tracking iPhone inventory at Apple Stores in your locality:

Click here to make a copy of the Apple Tracker sheet in your Google Drive.

The sheet has a list of every possible iPhone variant available at Apple Stores. Put your ZIP code, or your locality, against any iPhone model that you wish to monitor for availability.

Go to the Apple Store menu (near Help menu), choose Start Tracker and authorize the script. You only need to do this once, the script is open-source and none of your data ever leaves your Google account.

The Google Script will check the inventory of all Apple Stores in the specified zip code and will send email alerts if it finds a store where your favorite Apple iPhone model is available for pick up. The email alert will also include the Apple store’s address and phone number.

Later, if you need to completely disable tracking, open your Google sheet and choose Uninstall from the Apple menu. If you need to remove tracking from certain iPhone models, just clear the corresponding ZIP column for that row.